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Dylan at the White House
Re “Dylan at the White House”—
Thanks, Bob Levin, for these thoughts about the other Bob. Because of your words, I watched the video on PBS.
I was surprised to hear that the critics didn’t like his selection, as it seemed the most authentic and appropriate piece on the program.
Joan Baez’s singing was such a shadow of what it had been that it brought tears to my eyes for other reasons than nostalgia. But Bob never did have a great voice in the usual sense, and he just goes croaking on with his quirky take on things. That is somehow reassuring.
Nancy Herman
Merion, Pa.
February 17, 2010
Bob Levin replies: As huge a fan of Dylan’s as I’ve always been, I never fully appreciated his voice until I sat next to a musician in a local cafe who was expounding on what a major impact it’s had on American music. Imagine, he was saying, all the male vocalists who would never have had a career if Dylan hadn’t blazed the way.
Philagrafika
Thank you for Anne R. Fabbri’s review of Philagrafika 2010, and for highlighting Cindi Ettinger’s show. It really is a wonderful show, and she worked so hard putting it together, and of course with each artist to get the work done. Ettinger’s studio is part of the invisible glue that attaches the Philadelphia art community, artist by artist, and it’s a very unsung resource.
Daniel Heyman
Fairmount/ Philadelphia
February 17, 2010
Editor’s note: The writer is one of the artists whose work is displayed in Philagrafika 2010.
Thank you for this expressive, informed and extensive overview of Philagrafika print festival!
Eleanor Rubin
West Newton, Mass.
February 17, 2010
Picasso and the Paris avant-garde
Re Andrew Mangravite’s review of “Picasso and the Paris avant-garde” at the Art Museum—
There are two more rooms after the “Return to Order” space— “Eastern Europeans in Paris” and then finally “Death and Sacrifice”—showing responses to being in Paris to escape the lack of freedom in native Romania, Russia, Hungary, etc.— only to wind up living in Nazi-occupied Paris. The show certainly ends in the Paris of the mid-late 1940s, where Picasso and friends and Paris will never be the same.
Deena Gerson
Merion, Pa.
February 21, 2010
Andrew Mangravite replies: Quite true. And some of those images are quite compelling. Pity there were no postcard reproductions of them, or even a catalogue to purchase.
Editor’s note: To read another letter, click here.
Elizabeth Streb’s Brave
Re the reviews of Elizabeth Streb’s Brave—
I just came home from an exhilarating performance by Streb. I find the term poetry coming to mind, more than the idea even of dance or art— the movements becoming words in a poem, the booming sounds and sometimes-staccato movements creating line and verse.
If art and dance are anything, they are about communication. In Streb, I find a kind of communication that’s unique, that escapes definition in narrow terms.
If art does its job, it takes us to new places, new ways of seeing. Streb does this. It’s kinesthetic communication. It is in the moment of stillness, right before the actioneer falls to the floor, that I got the sense of eternity. Not a bad night’s work.
Donna Anthony
Greensboro, N.C.
February 20, 2010
Do we really need four reviews of the same performance when there was another dance show at the Annenberg that very same night that doesn’t appear to have received any reviews?
The By Local series featured Winged Woman Dance Company, and I personally would like to have seen just one review of that performance, considering it was a local choreographer with local dancers that deserved local attention. Is this a disturbing trend among reviewers— that they can only go to see the most advertised shows, the biggest shows, or the most popular artists?
I thought critics and artists were meant to work together— each assisting the other in their missions. I have not been seeing that in the Philadelphia dance scene, and I encourage reviewers to expand themselves and get out to a wider variety of performances. The performers need you, and you need them as well.
I’m just concerned, as a local dancer, how we can compete with these bigger shows for reviews and attract critics, especially if they just pick and choose which shows they want to see. I would be curious as to your advice on how one might do that. How does a local artist attract your reviewers? What makes them decide to review a show?
Amy Bowles
Philadelphia, Pa.
February 10, 2010
Merilyn Jackson replies: Just as professional dancers would not dance for free, neither do professional writers. First, we must have publications that pay us (however little) for though this is our love it is also our livelihood. For 17 years I have trekked to dark and lonely places to cover local dance. My colleagues in the field are equally intrepid, but recent economic downturns have limited all of our ability to cover as much as we would like.
As for the four Streb reviews— I agree that it would have been good to see other dance events reviewed as well. BSR, however, doesn’t assign and accepts our reviews as we are moved to write them because we think we have something to say.
Lately, Philadelphia dance companies (with exceptions) haven’t been doing much original work. Nevertheless, they beg to be covered. Then when the review is negative, they complain. Either suck it up and accept an honest review, or deal with not being taken seriously enough to be what our editors call “review worthy.” Remember, a good critic does not write to or for the artist, but to and for the reader.
Editor’s note: For further responses, click here.
Black classical composers
Last month Broad Street Review published an important piece by Dr. Maria Corley, ”Black audiences and classical music,” in which she focused attention on the recent efforts of Maestra Jerry Johnson and her Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra. Typically, my experiences also show a major lack of historical knowledge, as well as resource information to assist black composer repertoire development on the part of instrumental performing groups. To anyone seeking
resource information for repertoire development, please contact me at .
For additional material I commend my website, “Classical Music Recordings of Black Composers,” which provides an extensive catalogue of biographies, recordings, reference works and web links.
Richard Greene
Temple University
North Philadelphia
February 7, 2010
Although I applaud Ms. Johnson’s accomplishments and agree with many points in this article, what bothers me most is that many of the musicians in the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra are not local musicians. This, in my opinion, weakens the full value that Ms. Johnson’s idea could have had.
Many local well-trained black classical musicians in Philadelphia were overlooked when the roster of players were selected. I am disappointed in the impact that this idea could have had on the local music community. Audiences seeing and recognizing the many faces of the local, well-trained classical musicians from this area could have created a stronger feeling of pride and ownership from the city of Brotherly Love. Many talented musicians were born, raised and educated by our own city organizations.
I suggest reading Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia, by Elaine Mack. High-quality local classical players feel overlooked by an idea that should have been “air-marked” to showcase their talents, finally! Instead, it felt no different than the typical “brush off"… but worse.
Diane Kay-Clark
Overbrook Farms/ Philadelphia
February 22, 2010
Maria Corley replies: I’m about to write a review of Elaine Mack’s book. I just need time to finish it (it’s nearly 400 pages long). I hope nobody beats me to it!
Any Given Monday
Re the reviews of Bruce Graham’s Any Given Monday by Dan Rottenberg and Jim Rutter—
Did it occur to the critic to not reveal a major plot point of Any Given Monday before a potential audience member might go to see it?
John O’Hara
Skippack, Pa.
February 17, 2010
Editor’s note: To read another letter, click here.
McNally’s Golden Age, pro and con
I couldn’t agree more with Dan Rottenberg’s review of Golden Age. He is right on.
While the play’s idea is a clever one— a backstage tête-a-tête during the premier of Bellini’s I Puritani— Terrence McNally has taken all the worst attributes of the opera world and expanded them until the viewer is literally clubbed over the head with cardboard characters that represent the worst in the operatic tradition.
What’s worse, McNally uses the three-hour production to flaunt his admittedly extensive knowledge of the opera world— sort of a Texaco opera quiz gone haywire. McNally’s dialogue is indeed banal and, what’s worse, the stupid one-line throwaways come at you at an ever-increasing speed until this viewer wanted to get out of his seat and scream.
The silver lining: My girlfriend (not an opera fan) has finally agreed to go with me to an opera – I Puritani, of course!
Richard A. Levan
Center City/ Philadelphia
January 30, 2010
Maybe at age 60 I still have more patience than this reviewer. I found Golden Age quite witty, always interesting and engagingly performed. I’d recommend it without hesitation.
J. Sommers
University City/Philadelphia
January 31, 2010
Evidently Jim Rutter and everyone else I know saw a completely different play. It was three hours of the most boring ridiculous characters, saying absolutely nothing. If a good portion of the audience didn’t leave during the first intermission, many more left during the second.
Although the production is well done, the play itself is ridiculous (including moments where Bellini plays music from Oklahoma and Hello, Dolly!) I longed to be seeing the opera instead of these inane people behind the stage.
Jeffrey Lesser
Center City/ Philadelphia
February 10, 2010
Finally, a review (Jim Rutter’s) that matched our opinion of Golden Age.
This was a show that, despite several flaws noted by Rutter and other reviewers, was captivating and interesting throughout. The cast was outstanding.
Stephen Weinstein
Narberth, Pa.
February 10, 2010
It’s a pleasure to read your writing, Dan. I was thinking about digging out of my country abode to see Golden Age before it closes, but being 67, I don’t want to waste a minute of my time. Thanks for your cogent and witty review.
Jane Biberman
Doylestown, Pa.
February 10, 2010
Thank you! Dan Rottenberg’s review so mirrors my own experience of this play. I feel as though the other reviewers (Steve Cohen and Jim Rutter) must have been in a different theater. Thanks for
speaking frankly about the playwright’s and director’s responsibility to edit! A lost art, apparently.
If the train schedule had been more amenable, we certainly wouldn’t have made it all the way through.
Susan Smythe
Swarthmore, Pa.
February 10, 2010
Editor’s comment: This was a world premiere. I suspect the script will be heavily edited by the time Golden Age next resurfaces in Washington.
The Orchestra’s marketing
Dan Coren’s comments in “The Orchestra’s inane marketing” are on the money. Many of us would like to support the Orchestra because it is capable of performing any musical work at a world-class level, but ticket prices are set at a point that excludes all but the least diverse of audiences. Any attempt to balance the Orchestra’s budget on ticket sales is counterproductive. We all have so much to lose unless the Orchestra can get its proverbial act together.
Rob Kugler
Haddonfield, N.J.
February 10, 2010
Editor’s note: To read another letter, click here.
Mary Daly’s dark side
Re Patrick D. Hazard’s tribute to Howard Zinn and Mary Daly (“They rattled our ivory towers”)—
Mary Daly, it is true, started out as a kind of Catholic thinker. She earned degrees in three different Catholic colleges and studied in Rome, but then something happened. She adopted the fashionable radical mantle in vogue for a short time after Vatican II, and joined radical chic theologians Hans Kung and Edward Schillebeeckx in their campaign to transform the Catholic Church into a “House run by Committee.”
The Catholic Church, with its claim to hold “the keys” of the apostle Peter, has never been a democracy. Ms. Daly, fed up, left the Catholic Church and embraced the “religion” of vegetarianism and anti-fur politics. One can add male-baiting to her resumé as well.
Ms. Daly, then, ended up as a non-Catholic feminist theologian. I might add that her legacy in the secular world of feminist politics is also suspect, for she is criticized heavily for her intense (and rather blatant) dislike of transgender persons.
Thom Nickels
Center City/ Philadelphia
February 11, 2010
Patrick Hazard replies: I stand corrected. Her darker side is not inspiring.
Salinger as recluse
Re “J.D. Salinger and the cult of the recluse,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor‘s Notebook)—
Writers peak. It’s hard for me to imagine Salinger writing a better book than Catcher in the Rye. His decision to withdraw from the world may have been a gift: We haven’t yet had to (and may never have to, depending on what happens to his papers) grapple with his decline. We’ve never had to slog through the minor works of J.D. Salinger.
In fact, I wish more writers had decided, shortly after their peaks, to stop publishing.
Also, should we really judge artists by the amount of humanitarian work they take on? So what if Salinger would have regarded a New Hampshire earthquake as an invasion of privacy? He wrote Catcher in the Rye. What, that’s not enough for you?
Daniel J. Kristie
Folsom, Pa.
February 3, 2010
In my memory, Catcher was an important book to those of the 1950s and early 1960s who felt estranged from the conformist times— and Nine Stories was out-and-out brilliant. Salinger, as I recall, fought in World War II and may have “earned” his right to his withdrawal.
Anyway, once you start judging artists by their personal lives, I find you start emptying the shelves and walls pretty quickly.
Bob Levin
Berkeley, Calif.
February 3, 2010
Dan quoting Luke is cool! His sneer at Salinger’s refusal to hear a global bell ringing for his attention in Cornish reminds me of a recent spat in the Inquirer— over giving a front page obit to the recluse and a simultaneous back of its page to Howard Zinn.
Let him who is without Zinn raise another Stein to reclusivity. Let 2010 be Zinn’s year. Give another high school teacher a copy of his People’s History. By 2050, perhaps, the American masses will acknowledge their true friend.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
February 3, 2010
Damn, Dan, the comparisons you draw are hilarious! Not ones a woman would write, at least not yet.
Yes, Salinger’s obstinate refusal to write more, to shoulder his part of everyone’s joyful, painful burdens, is irritating. At least some of that irritation is the goddamn mystery we will never solve.
But let’s say bye-bye to our annoyance and count the ways to forgive him: He had no more story to tell; he was more fearful of people than we could ever know; he was nuts.
All of the above. We will remember Catcher as part of our own story. That’s enough.
Reed Stevens
Campbell, Calif.
February 3, 2010
Enjoyed your Salinger piece. It looks like you had some real fun with it.
I’d be interested in your take on the perspective suggested by another of my friends: that in significant part, The Catcher in the Rye lasted so long because it had special meaning for a number of generations of those who became high school English teachers. It’s much like the way works of music and drama selected by folks teaching in those areas were more reflective of when (and where?) those teachers were trained than current music and drama is.
John L. Erlich
Sacramento, Calif.
February 2, 2010
If we’re wondering, “Why are we so indulgent toward our society’s gifted hermits?” we might also ask, “Why are we so demanding of them?” Especially the writers we most love, whose work means the most to us. We regard them almost as if they’re ours. Like they’re there to serve us.
In 1880 Dostoyevsky said something to the effect that he hoped to live at least long enough to finish The Brothers Karamazov, because after that he will have said all he has to say. As it happened, he completed the book just in time, dying the following year. And anyone who has read the book sort of knows what he meant. After that, what else is there to say?
And then there’s Cat Stevens, who abandoned a fertile and brilliant pop music career after converting to Islam in 1977. There was once a time when I thought, what a waste of music talent. More recently I’ve thought: Give the guy a break. Did he not give us plenty of wonderful songs in the seven or eight years during which he composed and performed? Maybe he said all he had to say and the rest is silence.
While we’re at it, why not come down hard on Hart Crane, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton for killing themselves when they could have given us so many more wonderful poems? What is suicide if not the ultimate reclusion?
Robert J. Murphy
Drexel Hill, Pa.
February 8, 2010
The Pew confronts The Art of the Steal
Re “The Pew, the Barnes and the art of sophistry,” by Robert Zaller—
Robert Zaller here takes up his sword and, in neat precision strokes, marks the Pew’s attempts at revisions of history with a “Z"— or should I say “T” for Truth. Bravo, Professor Zaller!
Evelyn Yaari
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
February 3, 2010
Blessings on Robert Zaller and Don Argott for again pointing out that the Pew trust is destroying a unique art treasure by moving it from its home, created for it by collector Dr. Albert Barnes, only because of its political muscle.
The Barnes in its location in Merion is open to all who would wish to visit. To move it to Philadelphia is both cynical and destructive.
Michelle Osborn
Haverford, Pa.
February 3, 2010
Bryn Mawr Film Institute will have a remarkable series of panel discussions covering all perspectives on The Art of the Steal and the issues it presents. These will occur after some of their screenings of Art of the Steal. Details will appear soon on www.BrynMawrFilm.org.
Juliet Goodfriend
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
February 3, 2010
Jane Austen: novel vs. film
Re ”Jane Austen novels on DVD,” by Robert Murphy—
You might say that I have been happily inundated in Jane Austenia for some years and have seen just about all of the Austin films, including one with Olivier as Darcy (the ‘30s maybe), wonderfully rendered, and it seems all but forgotten. The ‘95 version of P & P was most charming; although my husband found Keira Knightley’s performance to be a bit jarringly contemporary, I loved the film: and Emma Thompson’s S & S earns many repeat viewings.
By the way, I must say that I seem to be able to manage Austen’s novels. I am presently reading
Emma,and look forward to rereading P & P for the fourth time.
Barbara Kristal
Glenside, Pa.
February 3, 2010
Robert Murphy replies: Far be it from me to rustle the feathers of Austen’s prickly flock of devotees. A freak of timing had me reading Pride and Prejudice while simultaneously re-reading Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot in Constance Garnett’s marvelous translation. Naturally, it’s unfair to compare these two very different authors. To say that Dostoyevsky towers over Austen both in terms of style and substance is merely to restate the obvious— and also, for our purposes, beside the point.
Leave it that next time I turn to Austen I will make sure not to have the product of a colossal literary and philosophical and theological intellect on the same coffee table while I wade through a swamp of murky prose and try to cherish this wonderful early 19th-Century English novelist of manners.
Editor’s note: To read another response to Robert Murphy by Alaina Mabaso, click here.
Re “Jane Austen is still good in bed,” by Alaina Mabaso—
I had the good fortune to interview Mark Twain recently about Ms. Austen’s writings and that of Mr. Poe’s too.
Here’s what he said: “To me his [Poe’s] prose is unreadable– like Jane Austin’s [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane’s. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.” (Letter to W. D. Howells, Jan. 18, 1909).
Also: “Jane Austen’s books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.” (Following the Equator, 1897.)
I mentioned this to Ms. Austen. Here’s her reply.
“Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.” (Mansfield Park.)
Joseph Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
February 7, 2010
Editor’s note: Glantz writes the “Interviews with the Famously Departed” series for the Wild River Review.
In her screenplay for Pride and Prejudice (2005), Deborah Moggach does in fact tamper with Jane Austen’s dialogue. There is hardly a speech in the book that hasn’t been rewritten.
I, too, enjoyed that Pride and Prejudice, but I can’t praise it for faithful characterizations, either. In it, Charlotte Lucas becomes a romantic, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet a devoted couple, and Wickham a self-absorbed complainer rather than an enchanting conversationalist.
Constance Mazelsky
Chagrin Falls, O.
February 10, 2010
Editor’s note: To read a further response, click here.
‘Ragas and Rajas’
Re “Ragas and Rajas at the Art Museum,” by Victoria Skelly—
When at the Philadelphia Art Museum to enjoy the Raga exhibition, see also the Kantha in the Perelman Building. Kantha, gloriously embroidered quilts, created from bits of worn clothing, were later re-cycled from quilts to dish cloths to diapers. This women’s folk art exemplifies art as virtually making something out of nothing, an embroidery upon the classic Biblical formula for divine creation.
Mary E. Hazard
Center City/ Philadelphia
February 3, 2010
Carmen on the big screen
Re Steve Cohen’s review on the Met’s Carmen on DVD—
My friend and I have to arise and travel early morning to be at the theater in line by 9 a.m., California time, to get a good seat for the opera telecast. It is well worth the effort and the theater is packed full with mostly hearty and appreciative seniors. What a great privilege to have this opportunity to be at the Met again! Thank you, Peter Gelb and all at the Met.
Steve Cohen’s review was excellent, and we appreciate learning the name of the substitute, Teddy Rhodes. What a voice! Great appearance! Great legs!!
Delores McCornack
El Cajon, Calif.
February 7, 2010
Obama vs. FDR
Re “How we misjudged Obama,” by Steve Cohen—
Politically, it seems that we’re at the point where the citizenry needs to (a) vote out every Democrat, every Republican and every Independent who refuses to compromise, or (b) vote in 60 members of the president’s party or 67 members of the opposition. Otherwise, short of Executive Order, there’s really no reason to believe that anything’s going to be done.
From where I sit, there’s only one question to be asked of existing politicians and candidates: “What positions of the other side can you adopt?”
The Penn/Franklin model of trying things out at the local level and then discussing which ones work best seems more appropriate than relying on the theoretical approach of so-called experts, pundits and politicians telling citizens which one works best. The ideal way to test health care would have been for one-fourth of the country (via the states) to try the Democratic plan, one-fourth the Republican, one-fourth neither and one-fourth to try the compromise solution (submitted by Bill Bradley in a New York Times op-ed column) of “trading” tort reform for more universal coverage. And then analyzing which one worked best. Alas, experimenting has succumbed to theory. So we’re at an impasse.
Joseph Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
January 28, 2010
There is one corporatist party in the United States with two wings, the Democrats and the Republicans. Barack Obama was a closet Republican as he is now in all but name an open one.
He treated the Republican minority in Congress as if it were the majority. His policies are virtually identical with what a third Bush term would have been: bailouts for big banks and the back of his hand to working (and non-working) Americans; a huge buildup of troops in Afghanistan and a virtual freeze on drawdown in Iraq; Guantanamo Bay still open for business; a robust defense of executive privilege and state secrets; and health care “reform” handed over to K Street and Max Baucus’ Gang of Six.
This guy ain’t Roosevelt. He’s not even Hoover, who did save a lot of refugees in World War I. He’s the Manchurian Candidate of the GOP.
I certainly don’t wish polio on Obama. But anyone who thinks he needs a change of heart doesn’t realize that he is exactly where he wants to be-- or, if my analogy holds, where he was programmed to be.
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
January 26, 2010
Editor’s comment: Strange, isn’t it, that few Republicans seem as ecstatic at this turn of events as you think they ought to be? Or are they too in cahoots with this stealth conspiracy?
English majors in decline
Patrick Hazard’s lament about the dearth of tenure-track jobs for English teachers is apt. This serious issue has also been noted recently in similar reports by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
However, Hazard’s opinion that the Modern Language Association (MLA) isn’t interested in world literature is baffling, considering that the theme of the MLA conference he discusses, which took place in Philadelphia in December, was “The Tasks of Translation in the Global Context.”
For three days, Philadelphia hosted hundreds of academics who discussed literature from around the world. This international theme was announced more than a year in advance. Anyone could have tracked down this information online in a few seconds.
So while it’s admirable that Hazard continues to sound the alarm about the horrible job prospects for English majors, his comment (stemming from his experience with the MLA in 1945) about the organization’s provincial interests in regard to literature no longer holds true.
For the record, I’m neither a professor nor a member of MLA, just a local observer with an interest in literature in translation.
Matthew Jakubowski
West Philadelphia
January 26, 2010
Patrick Hazard replies: I didn’t attend the MLA convocation and I’m pleased to learn that global literature was its theme. I have suggested that future Ph. D.’s in English present, as one of their prelims, media skills or competence in one foreign language to further our access to global literatures.
As an English major, I loved Patrick Hazard’s article and his point of view. I wish I had done more with my major, though I think I knew something was wrong then. At Penn (Class of ’63) I mucked around with some classes in American civilization, but no more than that.
Winnie Atterbury
Newtown Square, Pa.
January 29, 2010
Peru getaway
Re Toby Zinman’s “Winter getaway: Peru”—
What a delightful travelogue/review/personal chronicle of an amazing adventure—delivered in Toby Zinman’s inimitable voice.
Libby Harwitz
Society Hill/Philadelphia
January 28, 2010
An enlightening article from a prolific and talented writer.
A trip to Llama-land is definitely on my to-do list.
Marvin Hyett
Spring Garden/Philadelphia
January 27, 2010
So nice to read about my parents’ trip through your words! Thank you.
Caroline Starr Rose
Houma, Louisiana
January 26, 2010
Orchestra’s quandary
In response to “Pianist Robert Levin with the Orchestra,” by Dan Rottenberg, I’d be curious to know your thoughts about why the Philadelphia Orchestra is on the verge of bankruptcy.
The economy is a factor, to be sure. But I am not alone in thinking that the Orchestra’s repertory is hopelessly dull, on the whole-- although the evening you describe sounds anything but.
There is certainly no lack of interest in music in Philadelphia; I’m sure you also saw the Dobrin and Stearns list of adventurous concerts that appeared in the same Sunday Inquirer (Jan. 24). My experience in Penn’s choral groups makes it very clear that many of today’s college students are interested in classical music and have somehow received excellent musical training. Last semester, the large chorus at Penn attracted more participants than ever before (and I’ve been singing in that group since 1977) to sing the Mozart Requiem.
Perhaps it’s the combination of a concert hall that is regarded by many (not including me, by the way) as a white elephant and the lack of a charismatic leader. (Or any real leader, period.)
Perhaps in the end it’s just that the economics don’t work. The only solution in this country, I think, is for big money— corporations and Bill Gates types— to supply the necessary funding. And I believe that’s what’ll happen in the end.
Dan Coren
Queen Village/Philadelphia
January 28, 2010
Editor’s comment: That’s pretty much how the Academy of Music got built in 1857, and how the Philadelphia Orchestra was created in 1900. But the importance of a high-profile leader was axiomatic then, which doesn’t seem to be the case today.
The making of an activist
Re “The making of an activist, 1960,” by Reed Stevens—
Reed, you weren’t a chicken back then; you had very few options, and none that made any sense, and I’m proud of you!
How well I remember those days myself. I wasn’t protesting war at the time— I was too politically unaware and uneducated to even know there were problems. But life was a straitjacket that I’ve also escaped since then.
I’m eager to read the succeeding chapters that have brought you to your current rebellious state.
Karen Duncan
Los Altos, Calif.
January 31, 2010
Oh Reed, you are fabulous.
Know this truth of yourself: Your story is so “life,” so “Don’t question— just don’t, because I say so!”
I am amazed how in so many ways each of us (ugh) did our best to be proper. Girl, you are the cutting edge.
Mary Jo Stout
San Jose Calif.
January 31, 2010
Social worker’s story
Re “Up against the human services bureaucracy,” by SaraKay Smullens (August 2008)—
I would like to respond. I live in Arkansas, but I can tell you one thing: Something needs to be done about our Department of Human Services here in Paragould.
One of their workers walked into my home six months ago and destroyed my marriage of 40 years, based on nothing but hearsay— did not follow protocol or legal routine. As a result my grandchild, an innocent nine-year-old girl who was in my custody, was put back in a house where a 13-year-old pedophile lives. I have been trying to get someone to help get her back, but no one will help.
June Waller
Cotter, Ark.
January 26, 2010
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